Renju
Plain «five in a row» is fun exactly until the first strong opponent: black
(moving first) simply has too much of an edge. Renju is the tournament
answer to that imbalance. The rules are the same: a 15×15 board, five stones
in a row along any line wins. But black is forbidden to build two open
threes at once, two fours, or to make a row of six or more stones.
Those three bans turn the familiar game into a chess-flavored duel. No
double threes means you cannot just drop a stone creating two threats at
once. Every black attack has to be «clean», and white gets room to breathe
in defense — then catch black breaking the rules instead.
In our version you play white against the AI. The AI evaluates lines, builds
threats and blocks yours, while forbidden moves are rejected with an
explanation — you learn the rules right at the board. A win brings 100
points, the win count accumulates across games.
The board is drawn on canvas in a classic wooden palette, with hoshi dots
like on a real goban. Input is tuned for phones: tap an intersection, no
dragging. The «Demo» mode shows an AI-vs-AI game — seeing how the bans break
the usual forks once beats reading about them ten times.